Obama highlights military actions in speech at Norfolk State

As he waited for President Barack Obama to speak on Tuesday, he was hoping to hear a president who was a bit more firm and a little less interested in "compromising and capitulating."

Bailey said the president conceded too much on his health care plan -- abandoning the public option -- and scaled down his stimulus plan. In the end, it did little good because the Republicans weren't dealing in good faith. They were dedicated to making him a one-term president, Bailey said.

And the president needs to realize that if he wants to get his core supporters back in the fold.

"I think he lost a lot of support from loyal people," Bailey said.

A second-term Obama presidency should look different -- a chief executive who is "more firm" and willing to push his agenda. Bailey predicted Obama would win, but he thinks the race will be close.

"He's got a ways to go," he said.

Ken Harrison, 71,. retired from the Army, rose at 8 a.m. to make it to the 12:30 p.m. event.

"Let's put it this way, we have to get out and vote in a massive way," he said.

Update, 11:40 a.m.:

Trig Goodman, a Defense Department employee from Chesapeake, was among the hundreds who stood under a baking sun to wait for President Barack Obama at Norfolk State University Tuesday morning.

"I don't know when I'm going to see him again," she said. "We only had to wait a couple of hours."

Goodman works in human resources, and one of her jobs has been to counsel sailors who have been involuntarly separated from the Navy, the result of a force-wide downsizing. She had three words of advice for Obama: Jobs, jobs, jobs.

"The young kids are going to be looking to see if there are any jobs out there for them," she said. "And he definitely needs to talk to the vets."

She said "a lot of the vets are getting the jobs, which is good, but there is still such a strong competition."

In her job, she said she sees a lot of people "who have an awesome education, but are really willing to take any job they can right now -- just to get in."

Upate, 11:24 a.m.:

The Norfolk State University band is warming up a packed crowd awaiting obama's campus visit.

The stage is flanked on one side by a Virginia flag, and bunting is draped over the railings. Behind the band is a giant American flag.

About 80 people have been assembled on risers behind the stage. Some are fanning themselves on this hot and humid morning. A few wave to friends in the crowd below.

Previously:

President Barack Obama will make a campaign stop at Norfolk State University Tuesday.

The Hampton Roads visit will be his last campaign stop before heading to Charlotte, N.C., for the Democratic National Convention where he will accept his party's nomination.

Obama will speak at the Madison Hall Quad on the university campus. Doors open at 10 a.m.

The event is open to the public, but tickets are required to attend.

The Obama campaign was distributing tickets at Obama's Norfolk campaign office at 100 W. 20th St., and on the Norfolk State campus at the McDemmond Center for Applied Research, 555 Park Ave.

There was a limit of one ticket per person and they were given out on a "first-come, first-served basis."

This will be the president's second campaign stop in a week in the key battleground state of Virginia. On Wednesday Obama visited Charlottesville.

Obama last visited Hampton Roads in July with stops in Virginia Beach and Hampton as part of two-day, five-stop campaign blitz.